Lost and Found
by FreeSpirit13
Summary: Following Tom's disappearance, a harnessed girl named Erin falls at the feet of the 2nd Mass for reasons she claims not to know. Being that they are both freaks, she and Ben take a liking to each other and it isn't long before it grows into something stronger. But as time goes on, Ben begins to question the nature of her arrival, as well as her loyalty. Ben/OC
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N**-This is my very first story that I've actually decided to pose! Be gentle!  
_

_This takes place a few weeks after Tom goes onto the alien ship in the first season, and will continue through the series. It's Ben/OC, and the OC's name is Erin Greene. She's not a Mary-Sue and will have a key role in the story. If at any point she seems too much like a Mary-Sue, let me know and I'll try to amend that._

_This is rated T for the moment because I really don't intend for it to have M rated content, but that may change, I don't know._

_**Summary-** In the midst of the chaos following Tom's absence, the harnessed Erin literally falls at the feet of the Second Massachusetts for reasons she claims not to know after the harness is removed. Both freaks among men, she and Ben take a liking to each other and it isn't long before simple friendship grows into something stronger. But as time goes on, Ben begins to question the nature of her arrival, as well as her loyalty to the Second Massachusetts when she claims that the Skitters need their help._

_**Story Disclaimer**- I do not own "Falling Skies".  
_

* * *

It was after midnight and rain was pounding the forest floor as seventeen-year-old Erin Greene stumbled aimlessly through the trees with no thought as to the discomfort she was feeling. Her shoes were soaked through with holes that allow for small rocks and twigs to get in and bite at her feet, but she hardly noticed. The frigid rain and cold night air stung sharply at her bare arms and face, but again, she hardly noticed.

Once upon a time, she'd have gone out of her way to avoid the cold. She preferred warm weather where she could swim and run without catching a cold but without overheating, such as the weather during spring time. But now she found that the cold didn't bother her quite as much as it used to. In fact, it didn't feel too cold at all.

Besides, her orders were a priority, and she didn't have the luxury of feeling cold.

Whatever he said, she did, that was how it had been for months. Unlike most, he was good to her, good to all like her though he was quick to act like he didn't so as to avoid his loyalty being questioned, and he'd promised that the harness would one day be removed so that she could further aid them and eventual return to being a free human.

"One day" turned into a couple of days, which turned into weeks, which turned into months. The conflict she felt was never voiced, but he felt it through the harness and assured her that when the time was right, she'd be free. In return, she would help them, not because she would need to repay the debt, but because she knew in her heart that it was right, though she could not voice her belief in his silent words.

Her foot caught on a root and she stumbled, falling to the ground with a hard thud.

For a moment she didn't move, only turned her head to the side so that her face wasn't submerged in mud and moss. She simply stared for a few seconds where she lay, her vision sideways as she looked at a tree before rising to her feet and continuing on her seemingly endless journey. It was such a change, going from residing on a ship to wandering the rain battered forest.

The rain started falling harder and faster, starting to turn to sleet, and the only indication she gave that it was absolutely freezing was her body reacting by shivering almost violently. Her expression remained entirely stoic and blank.

Her once nonexistent hearing now mended and enhanced, Erin could faintly hear some chatter in the distance and knew that she had found her destination. He had said that once she saw or heard signs of life, she would have accomplished her task.

Ignoring the biting cold and pouring rain that soaked her to the bone, Erin pressed on towards the camp, unable to stop until she came across a free human.

* * *

One thing Ben used to hate was the rain, but now he found that he almost went out of his way just to sit in it even if it was becoming mixed with sleet. He mostly did so for the privacy because everyone else avoided getting soaked at all costs unless it was warm out and they wanted to wash up. Being that privacy was a luxury few were welcome to anymore, he came to look forward to the rain, especially after his father went missing over nine weeks earlier.

He still couldn't understand why Tom had walked onto that ship of his own free will, and he half wanted to call Weaver a liar. It wasn't possible that Tom was stupid enough to do something like that, not with how careful he was all the time.

What possessed him to go with the fish-head?

That was something he had no answer to, and if Weaver knew he wasn't telling. In his gut, Ben felt like it had something to do with him because whenever he asked, Weaver would give him an almost pained expression before brushing him off and turning his attention elsewhere.

Had something been said about him to get Tom on that ship?

Did it have something to do with his spikes and the deformity that was slowly becoming more pronounced around them?

Ben wished he had answers for all of his questions, but realistically he doubted he'd ever learn the truth from anyone but his father – that is, if he ever saw his father again.

Footsteps sounded behind him, and Ben turned his head towards it, instantly on edge. It was too soft to belong to a Skitter or Mech, and judging from the direction it was coming from, he concluded that it was someone from camp.

Sure enough, a moment later Jimmy walked through the brush, rifle in hand.

Hood covering his head, reacting to the rain as if he'd melt, Jimmy asked, "What are you doing? Weaver put you on patrol too?"

Ben shook his head. "Nah, just wanted to get some air."

"And catch pneumonia," his friend grumbled, adjusting the hood of his raincoat. "Aren't you freezing?"

"It's not that bad," Ben replied with a shrug, his sopping wet hair nearly blocking his vision. The next time he thought about it and had scissors within reach, he swore he was going to just cut his hair off. His shaggy dark blond hair made him feel younger than he was, and his spikes were bad enough without people treating him like a child.

On the bright side, Weaver had given him a gun and sent him on patrol with Jimmy a lot after he found a weak spot in the Skitters' attack back in Fitchburg where he helped punch through their defensive, giving the 2nd Mass. the opening they needed to get out with their skin. Pope constantly said he was the one who pulled their asses out of the fire, and he had helped immensely, happy to fire on the Skitters while they made their escape, but Ben knew they wouldn't have made it without his help. A lot of others knew that too and that at least had shut up some of the people who were more vocal in their dislike of him due to his spikes. Since then, Maggie had been teaching him to shoot while Hal kind of grumbled about it, though his brother couldn't exactly deny that it was high time that he learned.

As it was, he'd already learned everything Maggie had to teach him and then some, something about the spikes enhancing his learning capabilities exponentially. What would take weeks for someone else took only days for him, and that little fact along with his increase in stamina, agility, and strength unnerved Hall quite a bit, and his older brother constantly tried to keep him out of the field.

Hal could try to fill in for Tom, but he was being more annoying and angering than he was being helpful. At sixteen, Ben was expected to fight with the others and to do all he was capable of doing to aid the resistance, and for him that was fighting. Soon, Matt was going to have to learn how to shoot as well, though Hal would probably fight tooth and nail to keep that from happening.

"Not that bad, huh?" Jimmy snorted. "If you say so."

Ben just sighed.

Everyone else thought it was downright cold and nasty, being that it was already winter, but it really didn't bother him that much. He figured it had everything to do with his spikes and what the harness did to him.

Coming over to sit by his friend on some rocks where there was minimal cover from the rain, Jimmy set his rifle on his lap and looked around, his flashlight piercing the darkness. "Any sign of Skitters?"

Ben shook his head and replied, "Not since that patrol that passed through town two days ago."

"I don't get why they don't come after us," he commented. "We aren't exactly well hidden, you know. Won't be 'til we get to that church."

Jimmy had a point, and both of them had brought it up with Weaver once already. Given all the trouble the Skitters had given the 2nd Massachusetts, it was a shock that things had been quiet for even just a day when there were Skitters so close by. Something was going on, they just had no clue what it was, and Weaver was looking to move out as soon as they found their next location. Right now, all Weaver wanted them to do was keep up the patrols and send scouts out regularly until the time came to move out.

More needed to be done and Ben hated just sitting on his ass, hence why he'd taken up hunting Skitters. Doing so at least gave him some sense that he was doing something good while getting back at the monsters who made him a freak. No one knew about his late night hunting, not even Jimmy, and for now that's how he wanted it to be.

Needing to get the subject off the aliens for a little while, Ben asked, "You coming with me, Hal, and Maggie to look for food tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I asked Weaver before coming to find you. He said it was okay, but we've gotta try the police station before we get back. We're running low on ammo."

"You know the chances of anything being there are slim to none, right?" Ben pointed out, looking towards the woods when he heard a branch snap, figuring that it must have been an animal since it was too light a sound to belong to a Skitter or Mech. Shrugging, Ben asked, "Wanna check it out? Can't hurt."

"If there're Mechs there, yeah it will."

He snorted, laughing a little, but it died a second later.

Another twig snapped a second later, this time closer, and Ben frowned, rising to his feet. "You hear that?"

Straining his ears, Jimmy nodded. "Think it's an animal?"

Ben reached down and picked up a rock. Throwing it in the direction of the sound, he waited.

After a moment's silence, the source of the sound kept coming.

"If it were an animal it would've run away," Ben replied, retrieving his own rifle from the ground and training it in the direction of the sound. To Jimmy, he whispered, "C'mon."

"Shouldn't we go tell Weaver?"

"It doesn't sound like a Skitter," Ben reasoned, slowly proceeding deeper into the forest, his boots barely making a sound in the mud. "For all we know, it's just some survivor looking for food, maybe a raccoon that grew too brave for its own good. I don't see why we should bother him if we can handle it ourselves."

"And if it's a Mech?"

"We'd both know if it was a Mech, Jimmy. Just shut up and follow me," he said with no bite, only wanting his friend to be quite so as not to give away their position.

Silently following his lead, Jimmy followed him into the darkness, trusting that Ben would see where they were going.

As much as he hated his spikes, Ben couldn't deny that they gave him an advantage in just about every department. It was both a gift and a curse, though he leaned more towards it being a curse.

Spotting the slightest bit of movement, he whistled quietly to Jimmy and both boys took cover behind two large oak trees.

From what Ben could tell, the intruder was definitely human, their outline giving that much away, and were fairly small in stature, perhaps only 5'0 to 5'3 at the most. Multiple thoughts ran through his mind, starting with why the person was just wandering around without a flashlight and at a steady pace.

Taking a few deep breaths, Ben shifted the strap of his rifle around him and pulled his revolver from its holster along with his flashlight. In the scant light of the moon as it peeked out from behind the clouds, he gave Jimmy a nod and the other boy returned it.

With one last breath, Ben quickly stepped out from behind the tree and raised his gun while flicking on his flashlight in the newcomer's face.

To his utter astonishment, it wasn't just some short guy like he'd suspected, it was a teenage girl who looked to be around his age.

She was wearing a purple tank top and dark gray pajama bottoms that had seen better days, both torn in places and filthy. She was also soaked to the bone, her dark auburn hair plastered to her face and shoulders, and the shoes on her feet were drenched with holes worn into them. Despite how terrible she looked, she gave little indication that she was cold or uncomfortable. Besides the shivering, her light blue eyes were vacant of any emotion. She seemed more like an empty husk than a girl, and a dark pit settle in Ben's stomach.

"You okay?" Jimmy asked, frowning when she said nothing. To Ben, he asked, "What's wrong with her?"

Before Ben could answer, the girl swayed on her feet, blinking rapidly as her mouth formed soundless words while a look of confusion came to her face. When she started falling to the side, Ben dropped his gun into the mud and hurried over to grab her before she collapsed.

Despite her shivering, she was burning up, but that was hardly Ben's first concern as his assumptions were confirmed, and he adjusted her slightly to get a better look at the harness on her back.

Gaping, Jimmy stammered, "She's harnessed? What… why… where's the Skitter controlling her?"

Watching as the girl's eyes flutter as she teetered on the edge of unconsciousness after he adjusted her in his arms, he shook his head, more confused than he'd ever been. "I have no idea." Licking his dry lips, he added quickly, "Go tell Dr. Glass and have her get the bus set up now!"

"What if it's a trap?"

It was a valid question, but rather than answer him, he shouted, "Just go! I'll be right behind you!"

Jimmy had already taken off before he finished his sentence, to which Ben was grateful for.

Once Jimmy was out of earshot, Ben lowered the girl to the ground and grabbed her shoulders, giving her a rough shake. "Where are you?" he demanded, certain that this was some sort of trick being overseen by a Skitter, even though he didn't feel one nearby. When she remained silent, her head listing to the side a bit, he grabbed her jaw and forced her to look at him. "What do you want?"

The girl said nothing, neither of her own free will nor speaking for her Skitter. She merely stared at him for a few seconds before she fell unconscious, rain and sleet pelting her face and washing away the dirt.

He bit down on his lip, casting the beam of his flashlight all over the forest for any sign of a Skitter before looking down at her again. It made no sense, but apart from the static that was constantly in his head as a result of the effects of the harness, he didn't hear anything that made him believe there was a Skitter around, nor did he hear anything being said to her by any of them from a greater distance either. As he watched her condition worsen with each passing second, beginning to shake, he knew he didn't have a whole lot of time to waste on suspicions and interrogations.

After his group had been found, some of the harnessed kids started going downhill fast with signs similar to severe withdraw and seizures. It was like a fail-safe had been activated, and one boy died before his harness could be removed. Maybe it was caused by the Skitter controlling them being killed, maybe another Skitter tried to kill them through the harness to prevent the 2nd Mass. from saving them, maybe it was something else, he hadn't a clue.

What he knew for sure was that time wasn't something he could afford to waste.

Hooking his arms around the girl's back and under her knees, he lifted her unconscious body into his arms. Whatever the reason for her landing on their doorstep, he wasn't going to let her die because he'd been too slow in getting her to Anne because of his suspicions. Once she was secure in his arms, he took off running back to camp, hoping he didn't slip in the mud along the way and that Jimmy was already back and getting word to Anne.

* * *

_Good start? Yes? No? Maybe so? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the first chapter!_

_I'm also working on a few other stories that I might post for "Fast and Furious", "Intelligence", "Beyond: Two Souls", and some other stuff. Not really sure about what I'll post or when, so keep an eye out for new stories if you like my writing!_


	2. Chapter 2

Scrambling out of the woods, Ben darted past a handful of soldiers put on alert by Jimmy's claims of a harnessed girl being found and hurried towards the bus they'd found a week earlier, ignoring the soldiers following him.

"Ben!" Hal called, running to catch up to him with Weaver, Maggie, Dai, and a few others with him.

He didn't see Pope or his guys or even Anthony, so he figured they were still doing their rounds. Wherever they were, he was glad that they weren't around. Nothing positive regarding harnessed kids ever came from Pope's mouth, and apart from Anthony, the others tended to follow his lead.

Eying the girl as they reached them, Weaver demanded, "What the hell is this?"

One thing about living in close quarters, if there was a new development, word spread like a wildfire. Jimmy had no doubt said something to a soldier or two watching the perimeter as he ran in, then someone could have overheard him telling Anne the situation. All it took was one person eavesdropping and before long the whole camp would know what was going on.

"Don't know," Ben replied, relieved when he saw Anne and Lourdes prepping the gurney on the med bus with Jimmy standing near them. "She was just wandering around, and when he we found her she collapsed."

"Just like that?" Hal asked doubtfully. "She just... collapsed?"

"Yeah, just like that."

"Any sign of Skitters or Mechs?" Weaver questioned, on edge by the night's new developments.

Ben shook his head as he walked up the steps onto the bus.

Seeing them out of the corner of her eye, Anne instructed, "Lay her face down." She retrieved a pair of scissors while Lourdes quickly hooked her up to an IV after he set her down and turned her over, and she began cutting away the tank top so she could get to the harness.

Lourdes checked her pulse, frowned, and said, "Pulse is weak, blood pressure is –"

"Just get it off her!" Ben interrupted loudly, wishing they'd just hurry up rather than stand there studying her.

"Cool your jets, kiddo," Maggie urged from her position behind Hal.

Hal placed his hand on his brother's shoulder, but Ben shook it off, making Hal frown. "Just take it easy, will you? We'll get it off."

Take it easy.

Hal didn't understand, no one did. Unless they had been harnessed they couldn't understand how helpless Ben felt to just stand by and watch.

Anne was quick to cut through the shirt but didn't cut the strap of her bra yet as it was wedged between her back and the harness. No sooner had she finished cutting through the purple tank top before the girl began shaking, going into a seizure just as Anne made to pick up the blow torch. "Damn it! Weaver, Dai, hold her still!"

Both men followed the doctor's orders, Weaver holding the girl down by her shoulders and Dai holding onto her legs. The shaking had yet to turn violent, but if she wasn't kept as still as possible Anne could slip with the torch. Thankfully, the two men were able to keep her still enough for Anne to get to work.

As he held her down, Weaver took notice of something and asked, lifting his hand off her right shoulder, "What is that?"

Anne looked to the girl's shoulder and frowned, spotting the source of Weaver's attention.

Spreading from beneath the harness to her right shoulder was rough skin similar to the skin around Ben's spikes, only it was a faint shade of grayish green.

"I don't know," she breathed, shaking her head slowly. Looking to the brothers, getting back to the task at hand, Anne said, "You two, pull it back so I can get to the needles. Lourdes," she started, glancing to her assistant. "Keep an eye on her pulse and blood pressure."

Ben and Hal exchanged a quick glance, looking to the mutated skin on the girl before maneuvering over to the gurney to do as they were told.

Touching the harness sent an acutely unpleasant zing up through his spikes, and he was grateful for the jacket hiding each and every one of them as the feeling wasn't something he'd felt before. Given how terrible his own back was looking around the spikes he didn't exactly like them showing at all half the time, certainly not when they felt strange.

Grasping the head of the harness, Ben gingerly lifted it from her back to reveal as much of the needles as he could while Hal held its middle to keep it steady while the girl shook, and Anne quickly started cutting away at the needles.

Lourdes said something about her blood pressure dropping fast, and Ben looked from the harness to Anne, silently asking her to hurry up. If anything, he wanted to get answers from the girl in regards to what she was doing in the forest with a harness on her back without a Skitter on her heels.

With a new sense of urgency, Anne sped up the procedure as best as she could without burning the girl.

Frowning, staring at the newly revealed skin of the girl's back, Hal looked as disturbed as he had in a long while. "Jesus..."

Ben followed his gaze, along with everyone else gathered around the girl, and his jaw fell slack.

The mutated skin of her shoulder was just the tip of the iceberg.

The girl's back was in worse condition than Ben's was by far, the skin beneath the harness an even darker shade of green and incredibly rough by the looks of it, eerily similar to a Skitter's flesh.

Anne froze momentarily before finishing up with the last two needles. The harness was tossed to the side and she took a moment to listen to the girl's heartbeat while Lourdes checked her blood pressure.

The medical student breathed a small sigh of relief. "It's rising back to normal."

"Heart rate's evening out too," Anne added, leaning forward to study the mutated flesh around the spikes while unhooking the strap of the girl's bra since one of the spikes had pierced the dark pink fabric, not wanting it to irritate the spike.

"How long do you think she was with them?" Ben asked quietly, staring at her back with wide eyes, knowing he was slowly on his way to looking just like that.

"Longer than you were," she replied slowly, glancing at him. "By a month or two at least, but it's possible that the harness sped up the process. I can't say for sure."

"Any idea who she is?" Weaver asked.

Anne shook her head. "I've seen all the photos of the missing children and I don't think I've seen her before."

"Well, she didn't just come out of thin air and find us," Weaver stated tightly.

"She kind of did, Captain," Jimmy commented. "One minute Ben and I were talking, the next we heard something, and that's when we found her."

Anne, getting a bottle of water, a pan, and some towels to clean up the girl's back, asked, "And you said she just collapsed?"

He nodded. "Yeah. She started acting like she was going through withdraw and seized up like those kids from Ben's group."

"That makes no sense," Hal argued. "Harnessed kids don't just go wandering around of their own free will only to drop dead, or come close to dropping dead." To Ben, he asked, "You sure there wasn't a Skitter around?"

Looking up from the girl, he nodded. "Positive. It was just us."

"Even you can only see and hear so much, kid," said Maggie. "Could be that it was hiding and you didn't see it."

"There was nothing there," he insisted, wanting to tell everyone that he would have heard the Skitter in his head if one had been attempting to communicate with the girl. Saying that would only make people look at him cross-eyed with even less trust, so he kept that to himself.

Hal snorted and looked to Weaver. "I for one don't want her free to walk around."

Grinding his teeth, not liking the way Hal had been looking at the spikes, Ben asked, "Because she was harnessed?"

"Because harnessed kids don't usually tiptoe around the 2nd Mass. without a Skitter chaperone," he corrected tightly, narrowing his eyes at his brother. "I don't care if you didn't hear or see a Skitter or what – it's awfully strange that she just showed up out of nowhere."

It was strange, Ben couldn't deny that, and so he kept his mouth shut.

Weaver paced a few steps, deep in thought over what to do with their newcomer, and Ben silently prayed he wouldn't order a bullet to be put in her head. They couldn't get any answers from her if she was dead, and he wanted to know just how she'd gotten away from the Skitters and found them, if she'd gotten away at all.

Sighing, both exhausted and frustrated, Weaver ordered at last, "Get her cleaned up and a fresh set of clothes, but I want her restrained and a guard watching her every second until we figure out what's going on."

Ben felt a wave of relief that they weren't going to shoot first and ask questions later, and he looked down at the girl, his eyes traveling down her left arm. His brows knit together upon seeing her silver bracelet and he took a closer look, turning her wrist to the side a little.

"She's looks about my size," Lourdes commented, pulling off her gloves. "I'll try to find her something to wear."

Anne gave her assistant a half smile. "Hurry back. I want some help getting her cleaned up, and –"

"Erin," Ben interrupted quietly to himself.

The doctor looked up at him. "What?"

Unclasping the bracelet, he held it up briefly in explanation before looking at it again. "Her name's Erin Greene," he replied, reading the inscription on the outside and taking note of the little medical symbol to the left of her name. Reading the other inscription in smaller print beneath her name, he added, "Says she's hearing impaired."

"Can I see that?" Anne asked, holding her hand out. Ben handed it to her and she looked it over before nodding slightly. "It's a medical ID bracelet. Parents sometimes got them for their kids if they were diabetic or had some other medical issue so that if they were lost or if something bad happened they'd be taken care of properly. Hearing impaired could mean that she's just a little hard of hearing or she could be completely deaf, I don't know. The harness might have even repaired whatever was wrong with her hearing, just like it healed Rick's cystic fibrosis and your asthma."

Ben nodded, remembering how he used to need his inhaler constantly just so he could breath properly.

"Least we have a name to put to the face," Maggie offered.

Ben nodded, more comfortable calling her Erin rather than thinking of her as some strange harnessed girl, though that would be what everyone else would see her as, regardless of whether or not she was a friend to them. Most didn't see him as someone to be trusted, so why would they treat her any differently?

With that in mind, Ben turned to Weaver and said, "I'll stand guard over her, Captain. I was harnessed, she was harnessed – I'll be more apt to noticing something out of the ordinary. Besides, it's late and I don't need as much sleep as everyone else."

Weaver, after a moment, nodded his consent. "Agreed. Let me know the moment she wakes up."

As everyone cleared out, Hal hesitated.

Already frustrated with the earlier insinuation about the harness, Ben asked irritably, "What?"

He opened his mouth to say something, paused, then shook his head. "Just make sure you get some sleep at some point, Ben."

With that, Hal walked out with Maggie right behind him, and Ben heard Matt asking questions outside.

"He's just concerned, Ben," Anne ventured to say once they were alone, Lourdes going in search of some clothes. "It has nothing to do with you or the harness. It's just suspicious and disconcerting."

Ben wasn't sure if he appreciated the motherly tone Anne was using or if he hated it. On the one hand, she wasn't his mother, but on the other she was the closest thing he had to one since Rebecca died, thus making her the only parental figure he had left after Tom disappeared even though Hal tried to take up the role of their father.

If he had to pick and choose, Ben preferred Anne acting like his mother than Hal acting like his father. Hal picked on him as a little kid, and though he was sure he meant well, Ben still felt like his big brother was trying to stand over him, and it wasn't something he liked in the slightest.

"Yeah, sure," he muttered, biting the inside of his cheek.

She waited for him to say more, but was unsurprised that he offered up nothing else. He'd been exceedingly closed off following Tom's absence, and no one could really blame him.

Resigned to let him keep his thoughts to himself, Anne poured her bottle of water into a pan and set it on the table beside Erin. "Give me a hand until Lourdes comes back," she instructed, holding out a towel to him.

Hesitating, he then nodded and stuffed the bracelet into the pocket of his jeans for safe keeping. Dunking the towel into the water, he helped wash the dirt and gunk from the harness from her back while Anne took care of her battered feet where the rocks and twigs had dug in through her nearly useless shoes. Even after Lourdes came back he continued to help, though he did turn his back so the two women could get Erin dressed.

Someone outside called for Anne, and she glanced out before calling back, "I'll be right there." She retrieved some supplies, putting them into her bag, and she said over her shoulder to Ben, "Lay her on one of the beds, Ben." To Lourdes, she added, "Let me know if her condition changes."

Turning Erin over, he lifted her up and moved her over to one of the empty beds in the back of the bus, laying her down gently. Looking around, he picked up a few zip ties and secured her wrists to the bed frame as Weaver ordered. He ensured that they were tight and had multiple ties on her wrists, but made sure that he didn't cut off blood flow, cutting one of the ties off when he thought it was too tight.

Only when all was said and done did he pull up a chair and sit down, taking a deep breath and setting his rifle down beside him. He braced his elbows on his knees and contented himself with just staring at her.

All cleaned up, with the exception of her dirt matted dark brown hair, she was one of the prettier girls he'd seen in a long time that was around his age.

He wanted to believe that she'd just found them out of sheer luck or that there was something wrong with her harness, but he wasn't an idiot. Something else was going on, he just didn't know what. But he couldn't feel any Skitters nearby, nor could he hear anything, so he was resigned to think that she wasn't an immediate threat.

Until Erin woke up and started talking, Ben couldn't say for sure if she was a threat or not.


End file.
